Friedrich Bernard Christian Maassen
United Sees of Macerata and Tolentino
Vicariate Apostolic of Mackenzie
Marie-Edmé-Patrice-Maurice de MacMahon
Joseph-Anna-Marie de Moyria de Mailla
François-Pierre-Gonthier Maine de Biran
Françoise, Marquise de Maintenon
Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre
Marcellinus of Civezza, O.F.M.
Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament
Prefecture Apostolic of Mariana Islands
Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill
Sts. Maris, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum
Lucius Perpetuus Aurelianus Marius Maximus
Vicariate Apostolic of Marquesas Islands
Moral and Canonical Aspect of Marriage
Diocese of Marseilles (Massilia)
Vicariate Apostolic of the Marshall Islands
Diocese of Marsico Nuovo and Potenza
Luigi Ferdinando, Count de Marsigli
Missionaries of the Company of Mary
Servants of Mary (Order of Servites)
Society of Mary (Marist Fathers)
St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds of Jesus
Richard Angelus a S. Francisco Mason
Devises and Bequests for Masses (United States)
Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus
Caius Julius Verus Maximinus Thrax
Prefecture Apostolic of Mayotte, Nossi-Bé, and Comoro
Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod
Abbey and Congregation of Melk
Vicariate Apostolic of Méndez and Gualaquiza
Francisco Sarmiento de Mendoza
Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy
Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo
Frédéric-François-Xavier Ghislain de Mérode
Delegation Apostolic of Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, and Armenia
Metal-Work in the Service of the Church
Prince Klemens Lothar Wenzel von Metternich
Francis, Joseph, and Paul Mezger
Military Orders of St. Michael
Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola
Congregation of the Sisters of Misericorde
Prefecture Apostolic of Misocco and Calanca
Congregation of Priests of the Mission
Congregation of Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo
Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales of Annecy
Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle
Mission Indians (of California)
Catholic Indian Missions of Canada
Catholic Indian Missions of the United States
François-Napoléon-Marie Moigno
Diocese of Molfetta, Terlizzi, and Giovinazzo
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière
Principality and Diocese of Monaco
Canonical Erection of a Monastery
Monophysites and Monophysitism
Monothelitism and Monothelites
Montagnais Indians (Chippewayans)
Charles-Forbes-René, Comte de Montalembert
Marquis de Louis-Joseph Montcalm-Gozon
Diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
Anne, First Duke of Montmorency
Alexis-François Artaud de Montor
Antoine-Jean-Baptiste-Robert Auget, Baron de Montyon
Dioceses of Mostar and Markana-Trebinje
Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary
Toribio de Benavente Motolinia
Congregations of Mount Calvary
Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Karl Ernst, Freiherr von Moy de Sons
Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
St. Clair Augustine Mulholland
Baron Eligius Franz Joseph von Münch-Bellinghausen
Archdiocese of Munich-Freising
(1576-1636), a sculptor of the Roman School and of the era just preceding Bernini, his contemporary. He is believed to be of Lombard origin from the neighbourhood of Como; probably he was related to Carlo Maderna, the architect and sculptor, who was also born near Como, at Bissone. Stefano's works are found frequently in churches upon which Carlo was engaged. Stefano began by copying the antique and made several highly esteemed models in bronze. His fame rests, however, upon the statue of St. Cecilia over her tomb in the church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome. He never surpassed, or even equalled this which he executed in his twenty-third year. The body of the martyr, discovered by Pope Paschal I (fourth century) in the Catacomb of St. Callistus and brought by him to the church which had been her dwelling, was viewed anew unchanged in1599. Before closing the tomb again, Clement VIII summoned Maderno, the most skilful artist of his day to make an exact reproduction of the figure. His statue represents a delicate, rather small body, lying face-downward, with the knees drawn together, the arms extended along the side and crossing at the wrists, the head enveloped in a veil. A gold fillet marks the wound in the back of the partly severed neck. The form is so natural and lifelike, so full of modesty and grace, that one scarcely needs the sculptor's testimony graven on the base: "Behold the body of the most holy virgin Cecilia whom I myself saw lying incorrupt in her tomb. I have in this marble expressed for thee the same saint in the very same posture of body." If it were art alone, it would be consummate art but Cicognara bears witness that in the perfect simplicity of this work, more unstudied and flexuous than his other productions, the youthful sculptor must have been guided solely by the nature of the object before him, and followed it with unswerving docility.
Stefano is supposed to have assisted in the construction of the Pauline Chapel of Sta. Maria Maggiore, where two of his reliefs are to be found: one in marble representing a battle, the other, the story of the snow-fall in August, the origin of the basilica. Also attributed to Stefano, but quite without importance, are: the figure of St. Peter for the façade of the Quirinal Palace, a statue of St. Charles Borromeo in the church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, decorative figures of children in the Sixtine Chapel of Sta. Maria Maggiore, angels of the Madonna di Loreto and Sta Maria sopra Minerva and the allegories of Peace and Justice at Sta Maria della Pace. Count Gaspare Rivaldi, for whom Maderno executed various commissions, having sought to reward him by procuring for him a lucrative position at the excise offices of the Gabelle di Ripetta, the sculptor's time became unfortunately engrossed by his new duties to the exclusion of his art. He died in Rome in 1636.
M. L. Handley.